A review by isd
Blue Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson
3.0
Blue Mars picks up exactly where Green Mars ended. For a good long while things stabilize and science goes forward. Mankind spreads to the other planets and their moons, some even take off to other Systems. Years and decades fly past.
As the old main characters get noticeably old their memories start fading away, some start blanking out more and more frequently. At some point, around the age 220+ people start dying off suddendly and without any special reason. This is called the Quick Decline. Maybe the experimental memory treatment worked on that, maybe it didn't, we really don't get to know. All we know is that it helps clearing the old forgotten memories and stops the blankouts from happening. Perhaps only the remnants of the First Hundred plus one were the only ones who got to try it, as otherwise the population peak would "never" go away, solving the century-lasting crisis.
All in all I did like Blue Mars, but some bits just felt more boring than the average. That average has also dropped from Red Mars, in my opinion. Maybe it was because this last part was much further in the realm of what if, maybe there was just too much attention on characters I just didn't care about or whose worldview annoys me.
My "I liked it" review may be a bit harsh on the book on its own, but as it pales in comparison to the first part and does not improve on the second, that's how I felt about it. The world building is still fantastic and the science sounds good to me instead of the way too common magic-science.
As the old main characters get noticeably old their memories start fading away, some start blanking out more and more frequently. At some point, around the age 220+ people start dying off suddendly and without any special reason. This is called the Quick Decline. Maybe the experimental memory treatment worked on that, maybe it didn't, we really don't get to know. All we know is that it helps clearing the old forgotten memories and stops the blankouts from happening. Perhaps only the remnants of the First Hundred plus one were the only ones who got to try it, as otherwise the population peak would "never" go away, solving the century-lasting crisis.
All in all I did like Blue Mars, but some bits just felt more boring than the average. That average has also dropped from Red Mars, in my opinion. Maybe it was because this last part was much further in the realm of what if, maybe there was just too much attention on characters I just didn't care about or whose worldview annoys me.
My "I liked it" review may be a bit harsh on the book on its own, but as it pales in comparison to the first part and does not improve on the second, that's how I felt about it. The world building is still fantastic and the science sounds good to me instead of the way too common magic-science.